Pretty much every wedding needs to have a budget. You need to keep your wedding costs under control if you want to avoid spending too much and paying off your wedding for months or even years to come. This is especially important if you’re just beginning your life together and are hoping to later pay for things like a house, traveling, or having kids. Wedding budgets can easily spiral out of control if you’re not careful, especially because you can end up paying a premium simply for saying the word “wedding”. But whether you have a big or small wedding budget, you need to stick to it.
To avoid spending too much on your wedding, follow the tips below and ensure you’re able to follow the budget that you set.
Create a Realistic Budget
Firstly, you need to create a budget that’s realistic for what you want your wedding to look like. A realistic budget will look different depending on how you picture your wedding. If you’re going for a small, DIY wedding, it’s likely you can keep your budget extremely small. But if you’re planning a multi-day, extravagant event, you’re going to have to think bigger when it comes to your budget too. The best thing that you can do if you want to work out a realistic budget is to do plenty of research and find out how much things cost.
Build in a Little Extra
When you’re setting your wedding budget, try not to make your budget too tight. It might seem smart to set exact figures that you’re determined to stick to, but it could come back to bite you later. You could end up disappointing yourself because you’re being too strict or you might end up going slightly over your budget on multiple things. That’s why it makes sense to build in a little extra when you create your budget. Allow for 5% or 10% more so that you don’t have to turn down your dream dress or skimp on the flowers.
Set a Guest Limit
The number of guests coming to your wedding is by far one of the biggest factors influencing how much your wedding will cost. You can spend a lot of money on a small wedding, especially if you’re determined to stick to only the best wedding venues available. But generally, keeping your guest list to smaller numbers will either help you to save money or ensure you can spend your money where you think it’s most needed. Think about how many guests you really want to have at your wedding and how many you can really afford.
Define Your Must-Haves
Everyone has different ideas of the most essential things that they need to have at their wedding. If you want to keep your costs down, you should make sure you have a list of the most important things that you don’t want to go without. This will make it easier if you need to cut costs and remove some things from your wedding plan. You can focus your budget on the things that matter most. So if you have a choice between having a better cake or better flowers, and you don’t much care about the flowers, you know which one you should pick.
Pare Down Your Ideas
There’s so much wedding inspiration out there that it can be easy to end up with a huge list of ideas. Some people spend years dreaming up what their wedding will look like, even if it changes over time. With so many possibilities, it can be tempting to include every idea that appeals to you. But this is an easy way for your expenses to start ballooning, and you can quickly go over your budget. If you want to avoid overspending, be more careful and conscientious about choosing which ideas you want to use.
Keep Track of Your Spending
It’s difficult to know if you’re sticking to a budget if you don’t actually know what you’re spending. To make sure you don’t spend too much, it’s essential to keep track of your spending. Keep a spreadsheet to tally up what you’re spending on different aspects of your wedding and compare it to the budget you have set. It will give you a good idea of where you might have gone a little over, where you have some spare money from spending less than expected, and your total spend.
By sticking to your wedding budget, you can avoid a lot of stress. Be careful with your spending and you can ensure you don’t go over your budget.
